Why was cross-dressing the only crime Joan of Arc was charged with?
Most people can recount a rough outline of Joan of Arc’s story: A young French girl hears voices, leads troops into battle and is burned at the stake as a heretic. It’s a legendary tale of bravery passed along since the Middle Ages. Renderings of her youthful face have rallied together nations, races, genders and movements. References to the Maid of Orlans appear in the writings of Shakespeare, Henry Longfellow, Mark Twain and George Bernard Shaw, to name a few. During World War I, U.S. Treasury Department propaganda posters urged women to buy war bonds, proclaiming “Joan of Arc Saved France.” In short, Joan of Arc’s legend has come to represent the ultimate example of courage, patriotism and religious devotion. But while we often get the primary plot points of Joan’s brief life correct, the ending has been botched repeatedly. True, she was burned at the stake at the age of 19, but it wasn’t for heresy or
Most people can recount a rough outline of Joan of Arc’s story: A young French girl hears voices, leads troops into battle and is burned at the stake as a heretic. It’s a legendary tale of bravery passed along since the Middle Ages. Renderings of her youthful face have rallied together nations, races, genders and movements. References to the Maid of Orléans appear in the writings of Shakespeare, Henry Longfellow, Mark Twain and George Bernard Shaw, to name a few. During World War I, U.S. Treasury Department propaganda posters urged women to buy war bonds, proclaiming “Joan of Arc Saved France.” In short, Joan of Arc’s legend has come to represent the ultimate example of courage, patriotism and religious devotion. But while we often get the primary plot points of Joan’s brief life correct, the ending has been botched repeatedly. True, she was burned at the stake at the age of 19, but it wasn’t for heresy or
